The present invention is directed generally to the transmission of signals in optical communications systems. More particularly, the invention relates to systems, devices, and methods for producing upconverted modulated optical signals.
The development of digital technology provided the ability to store and process vast amounts of information. While this development greatly increased information processing capabilities, it was recognized that in order to make effective use of information resources it was necessary to interconnect and allow communication between information resources. Efficient access to information resources requires the continued development of information transmission systems to facilitate the sharing of information between resources. One effort to achieve higher transmission capacities has focused on the development of optical transmission systems. Optical transmission systems can provide high capacity, low cost, low error rate transmission of information over long distances.
The transmission of information over optical systems is typically performed by imparting the information in some manner onto an optical carrier by varying characteristics of the optical carrier. In most optical transmission systems, the information is imparted by using an information data stream to either directly or externally modulate an optical carrier so that the information is imparted at the carrier frequency or on one or more sidebands, with the later technique sometimes called upconversion or sub-carrier modulation (“SCM”).
SCM techniques, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,989,200, 5,432,632, and 5,596,436, generally produce a modulated optical signal in the form of two mirror image sidebands at wavelengths symmetrically disposed around the carrier wavelength. Generally, only one of the mirror images is required to carry the signal and the other image is a source of signal noise that also consumes wavelength bandwidth that would normally be available to carry information. Similarly, the carrier wavelength, which does not carry information in an SCM system, can be a source of noise that interferes with the subcarrier signal. Modified SCM techniques have been developed to eliminate one of the mirror images and the carrier wavelength. However, “traditional” SCM techniques do not work well at high bit rates (e.g., greater than 2.5 gigabits per second). For example, mixer linearity, frequency flatness, frequency bandwidth, and group delay tend to be problematic. It is also difficult to keep power levels balanced and well controlled. Such problems and difficulties can result in significant performance degradation and/or increased cost. Modified SCM techniques have also been disclosed to utilize Manchester encoding in place of electrical carriers, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,101,450 and 5,301,058.
Initially, single wavelength carriers were spatially separated by placing each carrier on a different fiber to provide space division multiplexing (“SDM”) of the information in optical systems. As the demand for capacity grew, increasing numbers of information data streams were spaced in time, or time division multiplexed (“TDM”), on the single wavelength carrier in the SDM system as a means to better use the available bandwidth. The continued growth in demand has spawned the use of multiple wavelength carriers on a single fiber using wavelength division multiplexing (“WDM”).
In WDM systems, further increases in transmission capacity can be achieved not only by increasing the transmission rate of the information on each wavelength, but also by increasing the number of wavelengths, or channel count, in the system. However, conventional systems already have the capacity to transmit hundreds of channels on a single fiber, and that number will continue to increase. As such, the cost of transmitters, receivers, and other devices can constitute a large portion of a system's cost. Therefore, the size and cost of systems will increase significantly as the number of WDM channels increase. Accordingly, there is a need to reduce the cost and size of devices in optical systems while at the same time maintaining or increasing system performance.